A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

"Nature accompanies me, exalts me" - Henri Matisse

A Serenade to a Sunday....  Reflections on a house and a garden.

"I buy another five cypress.  I work hard, water, pray, read them poetry.  I listen to books as I dig... A Field Guide to Getting Lost, Rebecca Solnet….A Paris year, John Baxter….and I dream of a day where they will drill their taproot down into the earth, deep, hardy specimens, that I never even water.  

I go back to Italy and I look at the cypress, in gardens, next to villas, lined up on roads.  They seem to hold the measure of us, grand companions on the journey of life.  Guardians and mysterious knowing trees, always I feel better when I see them in the distance.  When I realised I could have a taste of Italy here in my back yard, well why not?  There was no turning back"

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Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2022

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"I think that a writer should observe the real world before imagining a non-existent one" -
Jhumpa Lahiri, In Other Words

In a day and age where the universe is at our finger tips and we can meander the world with a smart phone in our pocket.  A device that has the ability to solve most of our problems, pay the bills, track your kids, read you a book, take you from A to B, or wander the streets with an incantation of Max Richter in your ears as you lose yourself in the city of Bologna , is it wise to bring a notebook to jot down ideas and thoughts when one could just as easily leave a voice message or make dot points on the Notes app on that back pocket ?  Yes, yes, I think it is wise.

Here are a few excerpts from some of my travel diaries, from Italy, France, London..... The final instalment of journals, diaries and notebooks.
 
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Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2022

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“Do you know the land where the lemon trees grow, in darkened leaves the gold-oranges glow,  a soft wind blows from the pure blue sky, the myrtle stands mute, and the bay-tree high?  Do you know it well?”   -   JW Goethe,  Author of Italian Journey

Welcome to Episode #60:

When I think about Limoncello immediately I find myself in Italy.  In particular on the Amalfi coast wandering the side streets, following the fragrance of the beautiful sumptuous lemons that seem to be in baskets out the front of every door or shop front.  

From memory there are two types of Limoncello, a sweet liquor in a small, thin bottle that is super sweet, or the turbo charged punch in the mouth digestivo that has you reciting poetry to a fellow tourist.  This recipe is like the later, but certainly can be diluted or sipped gently, but here you go.

So here is a musing on lemons, life and Limoncello, Enjoy....

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"Now I know why I keep a diary. I am not at peace until I continue the thread into the present. I am interested in analyzing myself, in trying to discover the reasons why I do such & such. I cannot do this without dropping dried peas behind me to help me retrace my course, to point a straight line in the darkness".   Patricia Highsmith, Her Diaries and Notebooks

So many writers have taken to the page to transcribe their daily thoughts, to reflect and preserve, to vent, to articulate, to understand, to create.  Diaries and journals can be a way to write your life into being, and a place of comfort and joy.  Always the diary is a humble companion on a journey, whether you are traveling out there in the world or not. 

Here are few of my own humble moments from my travel diaries in Camogli, Genova, Milan, Siena, London and France…

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Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2022

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"The only joy in the world is to begin"  - Cesare Pevase

What do these people have in common?  Jean Cocteau, Cesare Pevase, Virginia Woolf, Thomas Mann, Kurt Cobain, Frida Kahlo, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, Anais Nin and John Ruskin….   They were all Diarists and writers of a certain moment in time.  And they found solace on the page, and for some of them their diaries were published for public consumption.

Today I am sharing a few pages from my own travel diaries from moments in Italy, Paris and Nepal....  They were great adventures and a fun way to share some moments on the travel journey...

Enjoy...
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Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2022

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"We often need to be alone to reconnect to life and to ourselves, which then allows us to connect more meaningfully to others" - Sarah Wilson, This One Wild and Precious Life

Welcome to Episode 57:

Solo travel is make or break in my opinion and not for the faint of heart.  However, traveling alone can be a lot of fun too.  I love sharing the journey of travel with family and friends, yet I know there can be plenty of wild and beautiful moments when you take the reigns and travel solo.  

After a couple of adventures up may sleeve where I leave the kids and the husband at home, here is my take on what is good and bad, and deliriously wonderful….I love the quote from the book Alone Time:  Four cities, Four Seasons and the Pleasures of solitude…. 

“Alone time is an invitation, a chance to do the things you’ve longed to do”.  Exactly, and there is nothing wrong with that!

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Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2022

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“It’s not just the great works of mankind that make a culture.  It is the daily things, like what people eat and how they serve it” - Laurie Colwin, Home Cooking

Welcome……
There is something about food that weaves its way in and out of life, that we cannot deny.   When I wrote this some time back I was in the middle of the day to day yet, musing over women and food, and how everything was pulsing around me, the orchard, the sunshine, the books on the shelf, the mentors I would seek to understand through the many resources on my bookshelf….. Julia Child, Elizabeth David, Nigella Lawson, Diana Henry and many more.

These writers and culinary mentors were singing to me, and somehow I was in the middle of it all, somewhere between the daily and the sublime, reaching for a pear, scrawling down words, moments, memories, menus, and recipes.  This is the art of eating and everything I love about life.

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Stay Tuned for the next Podcast:  A Table for One - on Solo Travel.....

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“Recipes are like stories. Once told then re-told, they become familiar and part of our families heritage. Families would share food and recipes with one another and through this organic process a cuisine was born.  Spread a little wider, and this tale becomes regional. There is handmade pasta created without eggs, sources that are meat free and celebrate seasonal vegetables. So now, in each region of southern Italy, there is a wealth of accidentally vegan dishes for you to enjoy” - Nadia Fragnito

Welcome to Episode #55

If you are in the mood to be transported to the dreamy world of Southern Italy look no further than Nadia’s, ‘A Vegan Summer in Southern Italy: Recipes and Culinary Adventures’. 

I love this book for not only its visual beauty but its recipes based on plant based cooking, and the traditions of Southern Italy.  Food is more than the sum of its parts, it is culture, tradition, place, flavour and that connection between family and home.
Enjoy.....

Visit Nadia:  The Vegan Italian Kitchen

Book Share: A Vegan Summer in Southern Italy: Recipes and Culinary Adventures by Nadia Fragnito

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"You can make the world beautiful just by refusing to lie about it" - Gio Ponti (1891-1979)

Welcome to Episode #54:

The last day of a travel adventure can be a quite distilling, generally it is a tricky day where the emotions run up and down, with that inner knowing that something special is about to end.  Sometimes it can be a relief, sometimes the wheels fall off the cart, and sometimes the pressure to just enjoy it all can be simply too much, yet whatever the case it is a day to enjoy and revel in no less.  

And that is why I organised a ticket to the Villa Necchi Campiglio in the heart of chic Milan.  Not far from the Corso Venezia and the Fashion District on Via Monte Napoleone, this urban and modernist villa is quite the inspiration if you are interested in Italian design and Beautiful Things….

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Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2022

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"Let us be honest: who hasn't wanted to be just a little bit Italian?' - Kay Plunkett-Hogge, Aperitivo.....

Welcome to Episode #53:

Have you ever wondered how the effervescent Spritz drink customarily enjoyed at Aperitivo time in Italy became a cultural icon?  Once a purely Northern Italian cocktail and now very much a sign of the Good life wherever you are. 

On my recent adventures in Italy I fell hard for the bitter sweet Aperol Spritz number and started to wonder how it came to be, and why mostly the word Spritz was not exactly sounding like the pure sweet notes of Italiano.  So I went on a little journey to discover how the Spritz became the drink of the Veneto region in Italy and beyond.

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© 2022 A Writer In Italy - travel, books, art and life

Music Composed by Richard Johnston © 2022

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